i use that in my high school u.s. history classes. >> guest: that's wonderful. >> host: and this tweet is from a middle school history teacher. it seems it is not possible to determine original intent. your thoughts, please, and that's from chris. >> guest: well, depends on what you mean by original intent. as i've said earlier, scalia said he is not interested in original intent, that is that he's not interested in what people meant to say which is very difficult to determine. but in what they say in the meaning of the words of a given statute. i think, i think that it is useful to look, for jurists to look at what either the drafters or the ratifiers said about given provisions of the constitution. there you can, i think, find information that is of use. there is no original intent, there is no original understanding of the constitution as a whole, but usually the questions are much more specific. and you can find some information, but i see no reason to think that we are bound to understand those or to continue the